1. Field of the Invention
The various embodiments of the present invention described herein relate to the field of circuit board assemblies, such as, for example, printed circuit board assemblies requiring the attachment and anchoring of certain electrical components such as heat sinks.
2. Description of Related Art
In the field of printed circuit board (PCB) assemblies, there are a variety of methods and devices for attaching various electronic, structural, and cooling components to PCBs. For example, some methods for populating PCB assemblies include: surface mount technologies (SMT), compliant pin, pin-in-hole, through-hole solder and other variations on soldered and solder-free attachment techniques.
Through-hole solder techniques have often been used to attach heavier components, such as heat sink anchor components, to PCB assemblies. However, the advent of thicker PCBs, heavier copper planes and lead-free solder have made through-hole solder components more difficult to process. Furthermore, SMT and compliant pin interfaces fail to provide sufficient retention for heat sink anchors.
In order to solve these deficiencies, a number of solderless mechanical anchors have been proposed for the attachment of various components to PCB assemblies. However, many of these anchor components require relatively large mounting holes to be drilled or formed in the PCB. Other existing anchor components also lack adequate locking mechanisms for ensuring that the anchor component is positively and at least semi-permanently attached to the PCB. Furthermore, many existing anchor components require the application of an insertion force that may cause damage to the PCB at the insertion point.
Therefore, there exists a need for a near-zero insertion force, solderless anchor device for reliably and positively attaching electronic components (such as heat sink structures) to PCBs.